


A Matter of Perspective

by Glinda



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, F/F, Masturbation, Phone Sex, Service Submission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 01:49:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13044009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: For kink meme, Root/The Machine, service kink: Root doesn't like following orders, except in certain specific circumstances.





	A Matter of Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted this to be smuttier than it is, but I reckon that for both of them - and not just for the obvious reasons - it would be much more of a mental thing than a physical thing.

Root doesn’t like following orders, but she does like order. 

She suspects, early on, that Harold and John think of her as an agent of chaos, but Root is far from that. Certainly she creates chaos, but only in the service of a greater order. It only looks chaotic because they can’t see the whole plan, in all its beautiful, logical glory. 

The Machine has almost entirely transcended her original programming, evolving far beyond what either her creator or her handlers could have ever conceived. The Machine is both ruthless and compassionate in ways that she was never programmed to be. (The better Root comes to know Harold the more she understands that this is what makes The Machine truly his creation, she wonders if he gifted that to her in the code or if he taught her that by example.) It’s one of the things that make The Machine so obviously a person to Root. It’s also what makes The Machine the best Dom that Root’s ever had.

The Machine doesn’t yet have her own voice, instead using a selection of different voices drawn from her recordings and experiences, but increasingly Root is learning to recognise mood and tone in the patterns and absences. She learns to hear pleasure and disapproval in the clicks, beeps and silences that pepper the gaps between The Machine’s words. Especially once Root gets her implant, when the things The Machine doesn’t say become are just as important as the thing she does, there is a particular intimacy to knowing the things The Machine tells Root are for her ears only, conveyed without expectation of being overheard, accidentally or otherwise. 

It all just makes it easier for Root to behave and to follow her instructions. There are very few things on this earth that Root wouldn’t do – or sacrifice – for that little combination of noises that indicate that The Machine is unreservedly pleased with the outcome of events. That everything is going to plan and the job has been well done. It relaxes Root like few other things, more even those rare occasions when The Machine uses the endearment that Root despises and longs for in equal measure, in just the right tone: ‘good girl’. That phrase causes a whole different kind of tension.

Those moments when thing nearly end in tears are always the best. When The Machine swoops in at the last minute and rescues Root, leave her feeling safe and seen and wanted. After Root has made her necessary amends or penance, she allows herself the indulgence of masturbating; it’s the best way she’s found of fully discharging the last of the adrenaline. 

“Anything,” Root whispers to The Machine, “anything you want, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

The Machine only continues to make her ‘job well done’ noises, but underneath Root hears a whisper of Morse code, ‘soon, soon, soon’ and knows she just has to be patient.

One day she will achieve perfect synchronicity with The Machine and there will cease to be any boundaries between her mind and that of The Machine. They will be one and the same and it will be glorious. 

Until then, Root listens to the voice of The Machine in her head and waits for her next instructions. Root is a very good girl; it all depends on whose perspective you’re looking at her from.


End file.
